Freedom Riders

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Something Else That May Interest You From My Experience as a Freedom Rider

This is the journal that I've been using throughout the trip, writing down most of the things that's been happening.

My Experience as a Freedom Rider

Hello, my name is Kiara Valentin and I am a Freedom Rider. It is the year of 1961. I am waiting here at one of the freedom ride bus stop, not knowing what to expect. I see a lot of people here that I have never seen before, but who are also fighting for what I believe in. The bus is here. I'm about to get on. I'm feeling very anxious. Everyone is now sitting on the bus, we are on our way to Birmingham because that's where the next bus stop is for the Freedom Buses. There's a white lady sitting next to me, how do I feel about this? I actually feel pretty overwhelmed, I've never been this close to a white person. Wait, she asked me what's my name. I didn't think she was speaking to me, but she was. She's looking right at me. Okay, I'm going to answer back. I answered, I told her that my name is Kiara. She then told me that her name's Joan. I've never met anyone with the name of Joan. I'm kind of excited because she seems interested in having a conversation with me. So we've been talking almost throughout the entire trip to Birmingham and Joan's pretty nice. I've never talked to a white lady before and a white lady has never talked to me the way Joan has been doing. Hold on, it seems as though we've arrived and there's a huge riot outside. I'm scared. There's a lot of polices out there with sticks and guns. They're really scary. They're starting to arrest us each one by one. I guess I should go now so I guess it's goodbye, but it's not really goodbye, it's...until next time.